The so-called anti-smacking debate started by the proposal to repeal Sec. 59 of the Crimes Act has begun a new form of campaigning that all political actors should take note of. Reading “We The Media” and this report “Oxford Internet Institute Working Paper: Web2.0 and Citizen Participation” has made me realise that the Sec 59 debate is being conducted in a different ways than it would have only 2 years ago.
The rhetoric and vitriol may be the same we saw in the Civil Union debate, but new use of the web means that political debates will never be the same again. Some examples of these new tools are:
Who would have predicted that home-made videos of talking heads would be a political activism tool.